Onimusha Blade Warriors

"A great party game with a weak story mode"

Onimusha Blade Warriors is a 3D action/platformer hybrid that try's hard to be fun,but in the end falls flat.

Gameplay-As soon as the Main menu loads up you will be presented with 4 mode's of play, Story,V.S mode,Custom V.s mode,Tutorial.

Story mode- Pick one of the 12 available characters and take on 10 Level of Samurai fun.....right??

Not quite,Fun seems to be the main element Missing from this mode,from the Bad/unfair A.I to the Weak nock-off cuts-scenes,bad camera angles(due mostly to bad A.I), it seems like Capcom did everything in its power to suck the fun out of this mode.

But that aside there are still Loads of unlockbles and things like that to keep story mode tolerable,At least you can use the stuff you unlock in V.S mode.....speaking of V.S mode.

V.S mode-Now things are getting good,Nothing beats sitting down with 3 friend and Kicking the crap out of each other,No bad A.I,No cut scenes,bad camera angle's,just pure multi player fun.

This is really the heart and soul of the game,plenty of customizable options and none of the pain of story mode,

Custom V.s mode-same as V.s mode accept you can import your beefed up story mode character to play in a 2-4 player Battle.

Tutorial-Strangely, the Tutorial rock's,easy to use,easy to understand.
It will have you up and playing like a pro in no time.

Story - The story has always bin one of the Onimusha's strong points,so its good news/bad news time,the good news is the story is same old story we all know and love,the bad news is its the same freaking story as Onimusha 1 and 2 just retold through half-assed cut scenes.

Graphics-Just as good as Onimusha if not better,the backgrounds look crisp, the Buildings look sharp and are mostly destructible,to put it simply,the Graphics fit this game like a glove.

Sound - Aside from the Weak voice over work,nothing great but nothing bad, just average.

As far as music go's its seems like standard Onimusha fair,To tell you the truth none ot the music was both serviceable and forgettable at the same time.

Play Time- story mode can be beaten in less than a half an hour.....so to Unlock everything in the game would take any ware from 10-20 hours,but ''hey'' thats not bad for a action game.

Replayability-With the right 3 friends this game could be fun for years to come,great Replay value.

Final Recommendation- Unfortunately I can not recommend buying this game new,at least not with far superior game's on the market.....RENT or hold off till a price-drop.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 03/28/04